


December 27th

by Lamia of the Dark (VisceraNight)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cross-Generation Relationship, F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 12:10:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3067319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VisceraNight/pseuds/Lamia%20of%20the%20Dark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2804852">A Sirius Christmas Present</a>. Minerva comes to give Sirius his REAL Christmas present, a day out. The only problem is that she hasn't exactly got permission to do it...</p>
            </blockquote>





	December 27th

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my older works. (And it shows in the style...) It was originally written in four pieces but as it's rather short overall anyway, I've removed the chapter breaks.
> 
> Remember, this takes place during Order of the Phoenix. (I don't see how you could forget, with Sirius being alive and all, but still. Just keep it in mind when you're reading the last scene and you'll know exactly who the "exactly who" that I mentioned is.)

~ December 27th ~

Two days after Christmas, Professor McGonagall paid a visit to Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

When Sirius came out to greet her, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Sirius, confused by both the hug and the apology, reacted only to the one he was sure he knew the proper response for and awkwardly returned her embrace. After a moment, she pulled away. Sirius let her slide out of his arms.

"I'm sorry," Minerva repeated. "I was hoping I could get permission to take you outside."

"You'd do that for me?" Sirius's voice was awestruck.

Minerva was surprised by his reaction. She'd expected him to be disappointed. Then again, he hadn't known what her plans were. She wondered briefly if he'd even figured out what the tennis balls were for.

"I mean," he continued in a more normal tone, "I would have thought you, of all people, would be against me going outside."

"If someone doesn't do  _something_  with you, you're bound to wind up doing something stupid on your own. I'm sure if it were planned carefully, and done in area that isn't likely to be watched, we could get away with it." Minerva sighed. "At least, that's the argument I used when I was trying to convince him to let me... Oh, but it doesn't  _matter_! Dumbledore has refused me permission." She didn't tell Sirius that it had actually turned into quite a vicious argument, which ended with Dumbledore telling her to remove herself from his office before he lost his temper completely and did something they'd both regret.

"You know..." Sirius said thoughtfully. "Just because we don't have permission doesn't mean we can't..."

"You must be joking!"

Sirius just looked at her with a  _you've-known-me-how-long-now_ expression. She could tell he was serious. (No pun intended.)

Curiosity overcame her and she asked simply, "How?"

"Upstairs window?" Sirius suggested. They couldn't just go out the front door, after all.

No one else was in the immediate area, apparently having decided to give Sirius and Minerva some privacy. But Sirius would have bet that at least two of them had been eavesdropping on their conversation. Not that he thought Fred and George would object to what they were about to do. In fact, the twins would probably want to congratulate Sirius for getting straitlaced Professor McGonagall to go against the rules...

After making sure no one was watching, Sirius led Minerva to an upstairs room.

"We'll go out through the master bedroom, there's a ledge on that side of the house. But we'll need to get a few things first," Sirius said as they entered his old bedroom.

He went immediately to the dresser and began digging through the top drawer, apparently searching for a specific item.

Minerva stood just inside the doorway, unsure as to what she should be doing right now.

"How well can you see without your glasses?" Sirius asked without looking up from what he was doing.

"Well enough, I suppose," Minerva answered. "They're for reading, mostly..."

"I'd forgotten I even owned half of the stuff in here," Sirius muttered distractedly, still pawing through the contents of the drawer. He finally found what he was looking for: a battered black leather dog collar. He turned to face Minerva and said to her, "You should take your hair down, too." He strapped the collar around his neck almost casually, as if he'd done it many times before.

"That collar..."

"It'll stay on when I transform," Sirius explained. "You wouldn't want your dog running around without a collar, right?"

The thought of him being her dog made Minerva want to laugh and blush at the same time, but luckily her self-control was good enough to prevent either. Sirius wasn't even looking at her anymore anyway... Was he really so oblivious as to the  _reason_  she was doing this for him?

Minerva sighed. She wasn't sure this was a good idea. In fact, she was sure it was a  _bad_  idea. But she wanted to do this and she wasn't likely to get many more chances at it. And Dumbledore was already so angry with her that she doubted he could get any angrier. He'd been on the verge of getting violent the other day...

"Here." Sirius's voice startled her out of her thoughts. "Put this on over your robes," he said, handing her a Muggle winter jacket. "A Muggle park would be best place to go, but I don't think it's necessary for you to change clothes completely," he explained as she took off her cloak and put on the coat. She could see his point. The skirts of her robes didn't look that different from the skirts of Muggle dresses.

She took off her glasses and placed them on the bedside table, then plucked the pins from her hair and shook it loose from its bun so it fell free around her shoulders.

She noticed Sirius staring at her and said, "What?"

"Nothing," Sirius answered, sounding a little embarrassed. "It's just... you look younger. I was surprised."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Minerva replied with a smirk. "Are we done getting ready?"

"Just about," Sirius replied.

He shrugged out of his robes and tossed them carelessly onto the bed. He was wearing pants and a shirt underneath, which were better suited for sneaking. Especially sneaking that involved climbing. And he didn't need to be dressed for winter weather since he'd be in his dog form for most of the time they were out.

Which didn't stop Minerva from nearly having a heart attack when he started taking his robes off in front of her.

"There, ready," Sirius said, not noticing the look that Minerva was giving him. "Come on."

After making sure the hallway was clear, he led her to the master bedroom. He slid open the window and peered out.

"That ledge is farther down than I thought..." he said, sounding a little worried. "You might want to do your cat thing."

When they got to the park, Minerva let Sirius off his leash (which he'd tucked into the pocket of the coat he'd given her before they left, along with a tennis ball.)

Sirius barked happily as he pranced around sniffing randomly at trees and trashcans, stopping occasionally to chase his tail or roll in the snow. Watching him, Minerva would have sworn that if she hadn't known better she'd think she was looking at a real dog.

When he'd gotten over that first rush of giddy excitement at being outside, Sirius shook himself off and trotted back over to where Minerva stood.

She reached down and ruffled his ears.

"Oh, you want to play fetch now?" she asked, sounding amused, as she extracted the tennis ball from her pocket and held it out to him.

Sirius sniffed the out-held ball and barked once.

She threw the tennis ball for him and couldn't help laughing as she watched him tear off after it. And soon he was back, tail wagging, the ball clamped in his jaws.

She patted him on the head and said, "Good boy!" (With only the  _slightest_  hint of sarcasm.) Then she held out her hand and he dropped the ball into it.

They repeated this several times, then Sirius started running out  _before_  she threw the ball and trying to catch it in his mouth. He managed it on his third attempt. After several turns of this new game, Sirius got a surprise when Minerva threw him not the tennis ball but a snowball that she'd made when his back was turned...

Sirius let out a startled yelp when the snowball exploded into white powder as his jaws closed around it. He barked loudly at Minerva, who was laughing at him.

"Alright, alright, I'll throw the ball this time..."

Sirius, watching carefully to make sure she threw the tennis ball and not another snowball, was alarmed to see Minerva lose her footing and fall down in the snow. He rushed to her side. Once there, he stamped his paws and whined anxiously.

"I'm alright," she said, giving him in a quick awkward hug. Sirius lowered his head and nuzzled her shoulder. "Really, I'm fine. I'm not hurt at all..." Minerva stood and dusted snow off her skirts. "You want to play more, don't you?"

Sirius pawed at her skirts and whined. His message was clear: he wanted to go somewhere he could change back into a human.

"Come on, then," she said quietly, and led him into the woods that bordered one side of the park.

Once they were far enough in that they couldn't be easily spotted by anyone in the park, Sirius transformed back into his human form.

"We should get going," he said without preamble. "No," he said when Minerva opened her mouth to protest. "I know you're alright. I don't know whether you've noticed, but it's cold out here-" He lifted his hand and pressed his palm against Minerva's cheek. She jumped and pulled away. His skin was like ice. "-and I'm freezing," he concluded.

They snuck back into the house without incident, although getting through the master bedroom window was a bit trickier from the outside than it had been from the inside.

Once they were safely inside Sirius's bedroom, Minerva took off the ratty old coat Sirius had lent her.

Sirius put away the coat, and the leash, and the tennis ball, and the collar.

Minerva put on her glasses and quickly fixed her hair. She picked up her cloak from the bed and fastened it around her shoulders.

Still shivering slightly, Sirius pulled on the robes he'd shed earlier.

Minerva left the room. Sirius followed her. It was not until they'd reached the front hallway that he realized what her intentions were.

"You're leaving already?" he asked, sounding disappointed and maybe (was she imagining it?) a little hurt.

Minerva turned to face him but hesitated over her answer a few seconds too long. "I have to get back," she said quietly, biting her lip.

"Okay, I understand," Sirius answered unconvincingly.

"Sirius..." she said in a pleading tone. She didn't want to part on bad terms.

"You know," Sirius said, "that was the best Christmas present I've gotten in a long time. And, honestly, I think  _you_  needed that as much as I did."

Maybe he understood her feelings better than she thought.

_Oh, the hell with it! It's now or never._

"Sirius," she said aloud, "you're standing under the mistletoe." Conveniently enough, he actually was.

"It's probably full of nargles," he said. He didn't know why he said that. It was one of Luna Lovegood's stories that he'd heard secondhand from Harry.

"You're an idiot," Minerva replied. And she stepped forward and kissed him, hard. She pulled away without giving him a chance to respond and said, "I'll come see you again when I get a chance, so don't do anything stupid like going outside by yourself." And, with that, she swept out the door.

Now, the Weasley twins hadn't actually been eavesdropping on Sirius and Minerva's earlier conversation, but they  _were_  listening in on this one. And from the sound of this conversation, they assumed that something very different than the day's actual events had happened in Sirius's bedroom...

When she returned to Hogwarts, Minerva found Dumbledore waiting for her.

"So, how did it go?" he asked, his eyes twinkling with a mischievous light.

"How did  _what_  go?" Minerva asked, giving him a suspicious look.

"Your... day out," Dumbledore replied carefully. You never knew who was listening around here. Well, actually, he knew exactly who was listening, which is why he decided to speak carefully. "With  _certain people_ ," he added quietly, in a more serious tone. She just glared at him without answering and Dumbledore's expression turned to one of mild worry. "You didn't go?" he asked, sounding concerned.

Minerva sighed and looked away. "We did, actually."

"Excellent!" Dumbledore replied enthusiastically. "And did you enjoy yourselves?"

Minerva looked at him sharply. "You're not angry?" she asked in surprise.

"Why should I be angry?" Dumbledore replied calmly.

"But, you-"

"Ah, yes. I expressly forbid you from engaging in  _certain actions_. But you must understand,  _certain people_ are masters at sneaking when they put their minds to it, and granting you permission would have made  _certain people_ less careful and more likely to be seen by... people you wouldn't want knowing your little secret."

"You mean... you did all that on purpose?"  _The refusal, the fight, that was all a complete setup? How calculating of him..._

"Yes. Now, you still haven't answered  _my_  question... Did you enjoy yourselves?"

"We did," she answered, blushing slightly as she recalled the day's events.

"I see... Then you'll be wanting to spend Valentine's Day away from the castle as well, I presume?"

~end~


End file.
